Premier Matteo Renzi on
Friday lashed out at unions after Susanna Camusso, the head of
Italy's largest trade union federation CGIL, accused him of
being a Thatcherite as a big row over the government's labour
reforms rumbled on.
"Where were you in the years that produced the greatest
injustice, (the divide) between those who do and don't have
jobs, between those with permanent and temp contracts?" Renzi
said.
"We don't want Thatcher's labor market, but a just one,
with equal rights for all citizens," said the premier.
His government, said Renzi, wants to defend the rights of
those who have none.
"We're thinking of those...who are condemned to a lifetime
with no job security, a situation the unions have contributed to
by worrying only about the rights of some and not all," Renzi
said.
The premier's signature Jobs Act, which has been approved
at the committee stage, progressively raises safeguards for new
hires, slashes the plethora of temp contracts currently plaguing
entry workers, and establishes a minimum wage and universal
unemployment benefit.
But it also contains a key measure that would scale back a
landmark jobs protection regulation - Article 18 of the 1970
Workers Stature guaranteeing people unjustly sacked the right to
their job back - for new hires.
The government says this clause discourages firms from
offering workers regular, steady contracts as it makes it very
hard from them to get rid of a staff member once on the books.
This has been blamed for high youth unemployment, with more
than one in four under-25s out of a job, and for the fact that
most new entries to the job market are hired on freelance or
temporary contracts that provide few rights and low job
security.
But unions are outraged by the proposed change and there is
the danger of a rift opening within Renzi's centre-left
Democratic Party (PD) over the issue, with former party chair
and premier-designate Pier Luigi Bersani spearheading internal
dissent.
"We will present many amendments, and not just on the right
to reinstatement in case of unfair dismissal," Bersani said.
"As things stand, we are merely adding more job insecurity
to existing insecurity".
Renzi is bordering on crushing workers' rights in his
reformist zeal, Bersani said.
"New hires must enjoy the same protections as their more
senior colleagues, including the right to reinstatement after
unfair dismissal, which exists throughout Europe," Bersani
argued.
"We must strike a balance between capital and labor - that
is the essence of being reformist," he concluded.
"Renzi is a little too focused on the Margaret Thatcher
model (of labor reform)," said Camusso, whose left-wing union
traditionally has strong ties with the PD.
"We are defending ourselves, because those who would
abolish Article 18 are abolishing workers' freedom. We believe
reform is possible, but by making sure everyone has the same
rights and the same full-time, permanent contracts".
Under the change the government is proposing, newly hired
workers would be given compensation, instead of being rehired,
if a court rules they were unjustly dismissed - unless
discrimination was the reason for the sacking.
PD Deputy Secretary Debora Serracchiani said Friday that
provisions for worker reinstatement could be added in later
versions of the Jobs Act.
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